Social Campaigning

Clicktivism or cause marketing?

Social media campaigning or ‘clicktivism’ dominated 2014. The #ALSIceBucketChallenge raised more than $100 million and funded several motor neurone disease projects. #HeForShe called for men to pledge their support to women. And Michelle Obama tweeted #BringBackOurGirls, highlighting the kidnapping of 230 Nigerian girls.

Refreshing Challenge

“Dynamic and joyful, I have worked with pastel colours to bring the fresh sensation to the ice and cold water. The contrast between the dry thickness of the paper and the fluidity of the water was very interesting to create.”

Aurelie is a Paris-based photographer and paper artist, who works on chromatic associations and still-life compositions.

Clicktivism, or cause marketing?

Kim Kardashian is breaking the internet, Ellen Degeneres is showing off how many famous people she’s friends with, and The World Cup becomes the most tweeted event ever with 672 million mentions – welcome to 2014.

This was the year of social campaigning and ‘clicktivism’, 2014 was dominated by viral social media challenges. Many were totally without purpose like #NoMakeupSelfie or #NekNominate, but a few had noble causes with a real, global impact.

The #ALSIceBucketChallenge raised more than $100 million in a 30-day period. Bill Gates, Tom Cruise and Anna Wintour were among the 17 million people to upload videos. The money fully funded several projects, a few of which have made breakthroughs in learning more about motor neurone disease and the human genome.

#HeForShe launched in March 2014, but got a real boost when Emma Watson joined the cause. Emma Watson announced her role as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador on Twitter. She followed up this speech with a tweet the next day calling for men to declare their support for the campaign using #HeForShe. The campaign was powered by organic, viral momentum and celebrities using their influence to change social opinion.

In response to the April 14 kidnapping of 230 girls from a Nigerian school, Michelle Obama tweets #BringBackOurGirls. Her added support and acknowledgement of the rescue efforts brought media attention that had otherwise ignored the issue.

These hashtags enabled people to rally behind a common cause and work together to solve an issue. Whether that was through donations, widespread changes in attitude or simply raising awareness, clicktivism had the power to use viral momentum to create a positive change. These purposeful public movements marked a dramatic change in the way social media had commonly been viewed.